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The presentation of the inaugural event last Thursday, was hosted by Mindspark Interactive Network's Mike Goslin at GDC Online in Austin, Texas. Following the live show, a free, chapter-ready version of the 50-minute long award ceremony, including acceptance speeches, game showcases and special awards was posted to the GDC Vault website.

Leading the night with wins in five categories was Riot's standout "multiplayer online battle arena" title League of Legends, which earned awards for Best Online Technology, Visual Arts, Game Design, and New Online Game.

Other Choice Online Award recipients include CCP, which received the Best Live Game award for EVE Online, World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment receiving the award for Best Community Relations, Social City by Playdom for Best Social Network Game, and more.

Particularly worth watching is the section on Origin and Electronic Arts' seminal MMO title, Ultima Online, recognized as the first Hall of Fame game by the GDC Online Awards.

The award for the honor was accepted on stage by key members of Ultima Online's original development team: Rich Vogel, launch producer, Starr Long, associate producer & director, and Raph Koster, lead designer, and many of the game's other producers (pictured above) were also introduced onstage by EA's Eugene Evans.

Organizers of last week's GDC Online in Austin have revealed over 3,000 attendees for the online game-specific event, which concluded on Friday, also announcing a return to Austin on October 11th-14th, 2011.

The inaugural event, which was hosted by Mindspark Interactive Network's Mike Goslin, is a 'for developers, by developers' awards show.

It brought together developers of persistent online games -- including social network games, free-to-play titles and large-scale MMOs - to celebrate the rich history, technical excellence and continued innovation in the arena of online games.

Leading the night with wins in five categories was Riot's standout 'multiplayer online battle arena' title League of Legends, which earned awards for Best Online Technology, Visual Arts, Game Design and New Online Game.

The title also took home the coveted Audience Award, which honors the favorite game of the worldwide game community, after over 120,000 total votes were cast - nearly 70,000 of them verified, with an honorable mention going to KingsIsle Entertainment's Wizard101, which was a runner-up with tens of thousands of votes.

Other Choice Online Award recipients include CCP, who received the Best Live Game award - honoring exceptional new content and player-facing interactivity through expansion packs, patches, or other updates - for its futuristic and engaging sci-fi MMO, EVE Online.

In addition, World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment received the award for Best Community Relations, honoring the highest quality community feedback and experience, including customer support, forum moderation and leadership, weblog and information updates, and real-life events.

Other award winners include the hugely popular Social City by Playdom, which boasts almost 5.5 million active monthly users, and which won the award for Best Social Network Game. In addition, the audio visually lush and immersive Aion by NCsoft earned the award for Best Audio for an Online Game.

The Choice Online Awards acknowledged more than just games, honoring Richard Bartle as the recipient of the first ever Online Game Legend Award, in recognition of his indelible impact on the craft of online game development. Dr. Bartle will also present a lecture at GDC Online on Friday at 9:30 a.m. titled, "MUD: Messrs Bartle and Trubshaw's Astonishing Contrivance" covering the development history of the original MUD, which he co-developed.

Finally, seminal MMO title, Ultima Online, was recognized as the first Hall of Fame game, the award for the honor was accepted on stage by key members of Ultima Online's original development team: Rich Vogel, Launch Producer, Starr Long, Associate Producer & Director, and Raph Koster, Lead Designer, as well as a video message from 'Lord British' himself, Richard Garriott. The honor reflects the huge influence that the title has had as the longest continually running massively multiplayer online game in history.

The recipients of the First Annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards are:

Game Developers Conference sister website Gamasutra.com is in Austin, Texas all this week covering GDC Online, with a host of lectures on online games, iPhone/iPad and related product announcements already written up for the lead video game art and business website - and here's all the stories posted so far.

The Austin, Texas based conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, and there are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials taking place during the October 5th-8th event, with almost 90 companies on the show floor.

The second set of highlights of content at GDC Online thus far, written up by Gamasutra editors from session coverage and official releases, include:

- BioWare's Walton - Studio Culture Is An 'Immune System'"Gordon Walton, co-studio director at Star Wars: The Old Republic developer BioWare Austin, called culture an "immune system" that "recognizes you as something that belongs, or a foreign object that needs to be expelled."

- Brian Reynolds' Wild West In Social Design"Zynga's Brian Reynolds talks his FrontierVille, ways he's discovered to make social gaming more fun and more truly social, and key lessons from AAA design for successful innovation in the space."

- Koster Shares Lessons Learned In Social Game Design"Raph Koster, VP of creative design at Disney-owned social game developer Playdom, said that "console games are niche" and argued that the social gaming space is not going away, despite some who say otherwise."

- Ian Bogost's Troubling Experiences With Cow Clicker"Ian Bogost talks to GDC Online audiences about his Facebook title Cow Clicker -- how an environment of fear birthed a satire, the surprises he received when the game took off, and how it's ultimately a 'tragic' story to him."

Game Developer Conference's sister website Gamasutra.com is in Austin, Texas all this week covering GDC Online, with a host of lectures on online games, iPhone/iPad and related product announcements already written up for the lead video game art and business website - and here's all the stories posted so far.

The Austin, Texas based conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, and there are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials taking place during the October 5th-8th event, with almost 90 companies on the show floor.

The highlights of content at GDC Online thus far, written up by Gamasutra editors from session coverage and official releases, include:

Session Coverage

- Bungie's Staten On Building Worlds, Not Words"At GDC Online, Bungie's Joe Staten said that to create meaningful stories within a massive universe like Halo's, it's important to build worlds first -- and not to be "that guy" fixated on large and uncompromising narrative."

- LoroRoco's Kuomo Talks Making Of PSHome Loco Island"Talking at GDC Online on Wednesday, Sony Japan Studios creative director Tsutomu Kuono (LocoRoco) discussed his history in the biz and the making of Loco Island for the PlayStation Home online world service."

GDC Online organizers are reminding that this Friday is the final pre-show discount deadline for next week's Austin show, revealing a new Playboy/Bigpoint party and lectures from Civilization V creators along the way.

The Austin, Texas based conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event. Highlights include the confirmation of a keynote from Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), and track keynotes from Blizzard's Greg Canessa (on Battle.net), Playdom's Raph Koster (on social mechanics), and Bigpoint's Heiko Hubertz (on the rise of Europe in online gaming).

Organizers are reminding that final registration discounts for the show, which kicks off next Tuesday, will run out this Friday, October 1st, with discounts of up to $200 still available for prospective attendees who register now, as opposed to doing so onsite.

At this late stage, several new announcements have debuted. Famed media brand Playboy, which recently announced a foray into digital gaming with partner Bigpoint, is co-hosting an official GDC party open to all GDC passholders at The Phoenix on Thursday, October 7th.

Game Developers Conference organizers have announced additional Summits for GDC 2011, including a new GDC Smartphone Summit and the return of the Social & Online Games Summit. The organizers have also opened up a call for Summit lecture submissions until October 14th.

The GDC Summits take place Monday, February 28th and Tuesday, March 1st, 2011, the first two days of the historic 25th annual Game Developers Conference. They offer deep-dive content on a variety of notable game industry topics, ahead of the main conference which runs Wednesday, March 2nd through Friday, March 4th.

This year, the conference is introducing the GDC Smartphone Summit, which brings top developers from around the world to share knowledge and concrete takeaways on the smartphone and related platforms.

These include breakout game platforms like Apple's iPhone, the iPad, Android OS phones and tablets, Blackberry and a variety of other notable handheld devices.

The summits also include the vibrant Social & Online Games Summit, with a packed agenda devoted to social network games, free-to-play web titles, and microtransaction-powered online games.

2011's GDC will also see the return of the signature Independent Games Summit, highlighting the top indie game creators and lessons. the Summit will run as part of the Independent Games Festival at the show.

[As Game Developers Conference approaches its 25th anniversary next February, a series of posts will give insight into the process and history behind the show. This time, organizers take a look at the Main Conference submission process, as first-round acceptances are sent out.]

Although there's still plenty going on around other GDC shows -- with GDC Online taking place in a couple of weeks and GDC China still on the agenda for December, organizers are well into the process of picking talks for GDC 2011.

The 25th annual Game Developers Conference -- celebrating a quarter-century of existence giving inspiration and practical take-away by developers for developers, is being held in San Francisco's Moscone Center next February 28 through March 4, 2011.

Last year, then-board member Simon Carless discussed the background of how talks get picked for GDC, explaining at the time:

"One initial point that is worth making strongly. I know that in some conferences (both outside the game industry and in), the Advisory Board can take a much smaller role in actually directly picking the content.

But one of the reasons that Game Developers Conference is so well respected, I believe, is that all of the talks are either empirically chosen from submissions, or carefully and specifically invited by the official GDC Advisory Board. The GDC organizers don't pick your talk -- key members of your own peer group pick your talk.

So rather than being hands-off 'advisors', multiple Advisory Board members grade every single submitted talk. They also discuss submitted and invited talk specifics via email, phone, and during the course of multiple in-person meetings. Finally, they coach and mold conditionally accepted GDC talks into a better end product."

We're doing the same this year, and after submissions that ended in August, GDC 2011 lecture selection has again been extremely competitive -- with more than 800 submitters vying for the opportunity to present at the next Game Developers Conference.

This December's Game Developers Conference China is debuting its first Western speakers, including notables from BioWare, Volition, and Slant Six discussing key art and programming topics.

These initial announcements are part of the 'Global Game Development' track, one of the two main tracks at this December's Shanghai-based show, for which organizers recently opened registration.

The track, which is dedicated to excellence in worldwide game production, is featuring top Western talent discussing the practical art and business of making cutting-edge titles, and some of the the initial highlights include:

- BioWare development director Adriana Lopez (Mass Effect 2) will present 'The Art of Estimating Programming Tasks', explaining: "Have you ever been asked to provide an estimate for a task only to be horribly wrong, since it took you 2 to 10 times more than you expected?"

She adds: "We all have been there and the consequences are visible: projects missing dates, teams blocked by dependencies, and overtime, lots of overtime. The good news is that the battle is not over. With a couple of tools and a little bit of practice, each one of us can improve the quality of the estimates given for a project."

GDC Online has debuted partner content for next month's Austin show, including LocoRoco creator Tsutomu Kouno on PlayStation Home, plus Turbine's Kate Paiz on moving to free-to-play and subject-specific mixers from the Writers Guild, Epic, Crytek, hi5 and more.The Austin, Texas based conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, and there are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event.Following the confirmation of a keynote from Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), and track keynotes from Blizzard's Greg Canessa (on Battle.net), Playdom's Raph Koster (on social mechanics), and Bigpoint's Heiko Hubertz (on the rise of Europe in online gaming), organizers are revealing vendor-supported talks and receptions of relevance to attendees.Some of the key new vendor-specific sessions and supported mixers, receptions and parties of relevance to all GDC Online attendees are as follows:- As part of the recently confirmed GDC Online tutorials, Sony's full PlayStation Home day will include a keynote from LocoRoco creator Tsutomu Kouno on bringing the LocoIsland and Mui Mui Ship add-ons into Sony's PS3 online world.

Organizers have opened registration for this December's Shanghai-based 2010 Game Developers Conference China, following earlier confirmation of Blizzard, Flagship and Cryptic alumnus Bill Roper as one of the keynote speakers.

Now in its 3rd year, Game Developers Conference China offers "valuable and timely insight into the world of game development in China for an audience of both local and international developers", according to its organizers.

As well as a robust, to be announced line-up of both Chinese and Western developers and businesspeople as speakers, the event offers simultaneous translation during all of GDC China's lectures, meaning both English and Chinese-speaking attendees can easily listen in on all talks.

The Festival will include the finalist games playable on the GDC China show floor, lectures relevant to indies, and a special IGF China award ceremony, honoring notable indie games from Asia and Australasia.

GDC Online organizers have debuted the line-up for the Game Career Seminar at next month's Austin event, including staffers from Obsidian, Big Huge Games, Foundation 9 and more at the career-building one-day event.

There are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials in total currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th Austin, Texas based conference. The event -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, in addition to having Summits on diverse other subjects.

But it also includes a one-day Game Career Seminar event on Friday, October 8th, designed for students and individuals interested in learning how to build a career in the video game industry.

Attendees for the specially priced Summit will experience interactive sessions, network with industry professionals, and hear HR representatives, top game developers and industry experts share their perspective and insights.

The freshly debuted lectures for GDC Online's Game Career Seminar include the following newly announced and publicized highlights:

- In 'Don't Be Stopped at the Gate!', hiring managers such as Jim Rivers from Obsidian Entertainment, Lindsey McQueeney from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games and Dino McGraw from Foundation 9 discuss "how to prepare yourself with tips, tools and straight advice" in an interactive session for those wanting to enter the game business.

Game Developers Choice Online Awards organizers have announced the opening of the Audience Award, encouraging online game fans worldwide to vote for their favorite persistent online game from now until September 24th.

The Independent Games Festival China, which runs in conjunction with Shanghai's GDC China this December, is reminding that September 15th is the final entry date for the pan-Pacific indie games festival -- which allows entries from any Asian or Australasian independent game.

Following on from its 2009 success, the Game Developers Conference China -- part of the UBM TechWeb Game Network -- will continue to host the three main elements of IGF China, including the Independent Games Summit, which provides valuable conference sessions specializing in the challenges of independent game development.

These include the Independent Games Festival China Pavilion, an onsite exhibition of the very best in local indie games, and the Independent Games Festival China Awards, which honors the work of the talented pool of local independent game developers.

The 2010 IGF Main Competition will give out awards in five categories, including Best Game, Mobile Best Game, Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Technology, and Excellence in Visual Arts. Finalists in all categories will receive VIP and expo passes to attend GDC China and the IGF awards ceremony on December 5, 2010.

Last year's event saw more than 200 entries for the Main Competitionand the Student Competition, including entries from China, Hong Kong,Taiwan, the Philippines, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Pakistan, Australia,South Korea, India and more. Winners from last year include titles likeacclaimed Best Game winner Captain Forever (Farbs - Australia), Donovo (Magic Day Studio - China) for Excellence in Art Direction, HurricaneX2 (You Yun Tech - China) for Technical Excellence and Armor Valley (Protege Production - Singapore) for Excellence in Audio.

GDC Online organizers have debuted new lectures for next month's Austin show, including a League Of Legends postmortem, secrets to long-lasting MMOs with CCP and Turbine, plus a monetization track with Playfish, Facebook, Adobe, and Yahoo! execs.

The Austin, Texas based conference -- formerly known as GDC Austin -- is sharply focused on the development of online games, including free-to-play titles, social network games, and traditional MMOs, with a veteran online game industry advisory board evaluating and selecting the lectures.

There are now more than 120 panels, lectures and tutorials currently scheduled for the October 5th-8th event. Following the confirmation of a keynote from Zynga chief game designer Brian Reynolds (FrontierVille), and track keynotes from Blizzard's Greg Canessa (on Battle.net), Playdom's Raph Koster (on social mechanics), and Bigpoint's Heiko Hubertz (on the rise of Europe in online gaming), organizers are revealing further new talks.

The newly debuted lectures include the following newly announced and publicized highlights:

Merrill will discuss "lessons learned and some key factors for developing, launching and supporting a core game that is operated as a live service", including surprises and challenges the team faced, spanning strategies to optimize the live feedback loop, key roles and live team structure.